There’s no app to download and nothing to sign up for. StrayCats is a notebook where I’m thinking out loud, and the most useful thing you can do is think alongside me. I’m most curious about your own experience of caring for a cat: your own, a neighbor’s, a stray, a new adoption, one you had to give up, or one left behind. What would have made it easier? Below are some ways to share that, from a single line to a proper conversation. Start wherever feels easy. None of it adds up to a commitment, for you or for me.
Every message is read by me, personally, and I’ll do my best to write back. English or Spanish, either is fine.
Say hi, in one line
The smallest useful message is a name and a place: “I’m in Oaxaca and there’s a one-eyed cat at my corner shop.” That’s a whole message. Use Telegram, WhatsApp or email, whichever you already have open.
Answer one question
If you’d like something to respond to, pick one and answer in a sentence or two. Disagreement is welcome. It’s how the idea gets better.
- Which of these have you lived: your own cat, a neighbor’s, a stray, a new adoption, a cat you gave up, a cat left behind? What would have helped you?
- Do you look after cats you don’t technically own? How do you keep track of them?
- Have you met a cat with more than one name, or more than one “owner”?
- What happened to a cat’s story when it changed hands, or when its person moved away or died?
- Which ideas excite you? Which ones worry you?
- What would make you stop and record a cat you meet?
- What should a cat’s card never show?
Every story and idea also ends with a Respond to this idea box, with a question about that page.
Share a cat story, an idea or a correction
If you’d rather it be written down where others can see it, open an issue on GitHub. It’s the right place for a cat’s story, a new idea, or something I got wrong. For open conversation there’s also GitHub Discussions. A free GitHub account is all you need, and you don’t have to be a developer. Every page also has a Suggest changes link.
Please leave out exact locations and home addresses. A cat’s neighbourhood is plenty (see Privacy & Animal Safety).
Offer a skill
Translation, design, development, rescue or vet experience, local knowledge: the vet who helps community cats in your town, where low-cost sterilisation happens, how things really work where you live. There’s no code yet, on purpose: the first software comes after the ideas are shaped, so there isn’t a team to join yet. But if you tell me what you’re good at, I’ll know who to ask when there’s something real to work on, and you’re free to say no then.
Have a chat
If you’d rather talk than type, book a relaxed 30-minute video chat about the cats in your life and your ideas. It’s the biggest thing on this list, and entirely optional. Chats are in English, cameras are optional, and the Let’s talk page explains what happens to what you say.
Book a 30-minute chat (opens in a new tab)
Chip in
This is a one-person project with no budget, and it's completely fine if you never give anything. If you'd like to, a small contribution goes toward keeping the site going. There's no reward, no membership and no commitment, on either side.
Pass it on
Maybe the best help is telling one cat person you know. Send them the site, or copy the address below.
Or copy the address: http://straycats.love/
Follow along
Prefer it to come to you? Add the RSS feed to any feed reader and new stories and ideas show up there. No account, nothing tracked.
Looking for the older feedback page?
It’s still here: Give Feedback has more of the thinking behind these questions.